Cookie Notification

Cookie Notification

We use cookies to collect information about how our website is used and to improve the visitor experience. You can change your browser’s cookie settings at any time. Please review our privacy policy for more information. OK

NEW YORK—May 31, 2017—Pearl Meyer’s 2017 Cyber Security Compensation Survey, which reports base salary, short-term incentives, and total cash compensation for cyber security professionals, shows significant changes in pay practices since the survey was first published in 2015. Offer acceptance rates in the job class are at their lowest in four years and 31 percent of participants indicate it is “significantly difficult” to hire cyber security experts.

“This has been one of our fastest-growing surveys with participation up by 18 percent, showing just how critical and visible the cyber security position has become for all companies,” said Ken Cardinal, managing director and lead for Pearl Meyer’s survey practice. “When we first launched the survey, benchmark job data was quite thin for this role and companies were struggling to attract and retain cyber security professionals. That situation has not improved, but now companies do have year-over-year comparison data to set competitive pay levels and consider bonus structures that may help.”

Survey findings show that 32 percent of incumbents in a cyber security role are eligible for long-term incentives, in addition to base salary and short-term incentives. However, turnover rates have increased 67 percent, from 8.4 percent in 2013 to 14 percent in 2016. The survey also shows that companies do not appear to be focused on recruiting from any specific educational degree field, although cyber security professionals with master’s degrees are paid 5.5 percent higher base salary on average than those with bachelor’s degrees.

“At the request of our participants, we have a new classification in this years’ report,” said Wyatt Allread, survey account manager at Pearl Meyer. “In addition to cyber security experts who are part of a company’s internal information technology team, we also include salary data on external cyber security experts, such as hardware or software developers. We found a premium of 5.4 percent is being paid to these external positions.”

Ninety-three leading organizations provided data and information on their pay practices for more than 9,500 cyber security professionals. Survey sponsors include Sandia National Laboratories, MIT Lincoln Lab, American Family Insurance Group, Cigna Corporation, Coalfire Systems, Inc., Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Raytheon Company, and The MITRE Corporation. New participants to the survey in 2017 include Microsoft and Fidelity.

Pearl Meyer is the leading advisor to boards and senior management on the alignment of executive compensation with business and leadership strategy, making pay programs a powerful catalyst for value creation and competitive advantage. Pearl Meyer’s global clients stand at the forefront of their industries and range from emerging high-growth, not-for-profit, and private companies to the Fortune 500 and FTSE 350. The firm has offices in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, London, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.